Chapter One
by Agustina Kazuyo
Summary: [ONE-SHOT] Of course Inuyasha is dead. Of course he died saving Kagome. Now, all she has to do is survive the rest of her life without him. [InuxKag] [AR]


Of course Inuyasha was dead. He was always too hasty, too impulsive… too kind.

Of course he had not hesitated when he had to choose. Of course he had gotten himself in the way of Naraku's blade.

Of course he had saved her.

He had a one-track-mind… and some of it had gotten into her.

Kagome could have used the wish to bring him back, but he would have been mad.

The Well had to be closed, they all knew it. Using the Jewel to revive the hanyou would have been selfish and the war would have started all over again.

And so, she had left forever.

Now she was there, same as usual for months. Restless, slpeepless in the middle of the night, hugging Tessaiga, and by the window.

Alone.

Sango had cried even more than her, but she couldn't allow her best friend forget about her own happiness while mourning hers. Miroku was free of the curse, he was devastated too, but he was ready to start getting up and enjoy their justly earned 'happily ever after'.

Shippo… he was heartbroken. Losing his parents once had been enough, and now losing Kagome to her own time crushed him.

But Sango promised she would take care of him. He would live it off.

She let out a soft huff in amusement. Kouga had reacted so badly, he said he wanted to kill Inuyasha himself, but deep down his loss hurt him as much as it had hurt the rest.

He threw such a tantrum! But Sesshomaru had been even madder… he had destroyed an entire mountain.

The battle that ended Naraku had been southwest, almost a week away by foot.

Returning to the village without Inuyasha had been the hardest thing she had ever done. It would mean not only saying goodbye to him, but also the others. There was no celebration, no feast for the victors.

The guest of honor would not arrive.

But, in the end, it had been done. His ashes were spread between the roots of the Goshinboku, the wish had been made, and she was back home.

Except it didn't feel like home anymore.

She couldn't even get near the Sacred Tree. Visiting Inuyasha's tomb, even if she had lived by its side her whole life, was now too difficult.

If maybe she had moved faster, if she had seen it coming… if she had never made it to the Sengoku period at all… he would still be alive.

 _Pinned to a tree, but hey, alive._

And there she was again, laughing at the silly things he'd said, smiling at the times he hugged her, remembering how much she loved him.

 _I'd wish I could have told him… I'd wish I could have kissed him at least once._

She sighed. There were no tears to wipe away; she was well past that point now.

For now, she had to focus on one thing: surviving.

* * *

"Smile, Kagome-chan!"

"Huh?"

"Ayumi-chan's taking a picture, smile!"

"Oh, right…"

Eri squeezed her hand with futile tenderness. They all knew Kagome's boyfriend had died, but she hadn't said a word about the circumstances. Her mother had mentioned she only knew he had died in a violent situation.

Neither had dared to ask, they had driven away anyone heartless enough to do so. In the end it didn't matter, even if curiosity was painful. Her smile was in her mouth but not in her eyes; Kagome was like a ghost, and they had to find a way to revive her.

Managing to get her out of her house was tremendous progress. The fact that she had turned up for the school trip to Kyoto meant that maybe… just maybe… it was time for her to pick up the pieces of her heart.

But goddammit! She was taking her sweet time!

"Kagome-chan, do you want some ice cream?"

"Nah, thanks, I'm good."

"Do you wanna check the souvenir store?"

"Maybe later."

"Let's take another picture!"

"You go, I'll take it."

Three sighs. There _had_ to be a way to bring Kagome back to the land of the living… After a year she needed to wake up and move on, even if it was a bit at a time.

* * *

Yuka was brushing her hair when she decided she had enough of the silence of her roommate. They were four sixteen years old in Kyoto. If even for a second, Kagome needed to have _fun._

"What's out the window?"

"Huh?"

"You've been staring out the window since we got back to the room, is there anything out there?"

"Nah, I just…"

"The Golden Pavilion was beautiful, don't you think? Had you ever seen so much gold in the same place?"

"I've been here before"

Yuka tilted her head. "I thought you've never been to Kyoto!"

Kagome shrugged. "I guess I forgot. I remember the Pavilion, though. But in passing, I didn't pay much attention to it."

"So you must have been really young!"

"Yeah, sure…"

Well, there she was again.

The brunette sighed and sat on her bed. Eri and Ayumi relied on more subtle methods, and she finally had the chance to be as direct as it pleased her. "I hope you don't hate me, but I don't care if you do… If you are not gonna get over Inuyasha's death you should at least try to _talk_ about it."

It all went out in a single breath. She expected indignation, screams, fury… but she wasn't even sure her friend had heard. "Kagome-chan? You asleep?"

"He died defending me. It was my fault."

The miko turned off the light and tucked herself in. Yuka was pale and dumbstruck, but finally managed to move.

She walked to her friend's bed and snuggled her way by her side. She was received by a sobbing girl who silently cuddled against her pillow.

The brunette hugged her friend tightly, and she didn't even know what to say. "It's gonna be alright…" She mumbled.

"No… No, it won't."

* * *

The lesson was about the Kinkaku-ji they had visited last week in Kyoto, but as usual, she wasn't listening.

"…in 1397 by Yoshimitsu Ashikaga…"

Who the hell cared? Who the hell _could_ care about history and golden temples when the important heroes had been forgotten?

"… his son converted the building into a temple after…"

How could it be she hadn't found a single historical record in a whole year that even mentioned Naraku's mess and her friends fixing it?

"…Onin war…"

Her cheek rested on her hand and she was staring at the chalkboard, but her mind was far away, in the past that her present pretended have never happened and the future she would never have.

"…Burnt to ashes…"

She was trapped. She never knew what she would do after Naraku was defeated, but they would have managed. They would have been happy.

"…July the 2nd, 1950…"

And now she was living half a life.

"…the Phoenix…"

Alone.

"…Mount Hokuzan…"

"What did you just said?"

A whole classroom of dark haired heads turned her way and only then she realized those words had actually come from her mouth.

"Did you have a question, Higurashi-san?"

"Erh…"

"She asked you to please repeat that last thing you said, about the mountain!" Eri quickly intervened, a spark in her eyes when her friend had -kinda- been paying attention.

"Of course. The temple is built on top of the northern mountain, Hokuzan, surrounded by forest and next to Mount Daimonji… In 1955 the pavilion was rebuilt and…"

The lesson went on and once again Kagome was in her own word… 'Hokuzan' and the pavilion, where had she heard those two before? Something itched in the back of her mind, something she knew was important.

And she remembered.

She almost jumped from her place. "Teacher, I have another question!" she frenetically waved her upraised hand.

"Erh… Of course, Higurashi-san, tell me."

"About five hundred years ago, something happened in Mount Hokuzan? Was the pavilion destroyed? Something like an earthquake."

"Mh, good question. There were only two occasions when the Temple was damaged, during the war in the fifteenth century and fifty years ago. It stoically resisted until such incident, it was because…"

"Are you _sure_? Are you _absolutely_ _sure_ the mountain didn't collapse five hundred years ago in a mysterious incident?"

The professor blinked slowly. "Yes, Higurashi-san, I am sure. The events of the Onin war were thoroughly documented… I don't think the whole mountain collapsing a hundred years later would end up unrecorded... Higurashi-san? Are you ok?"

Cold droplets of sweat dripped down Kagome's forehead and she was panting.

"Kagome-chan, what is it?" Ayumi knelt by her side and pressed her palm against her forehead. "You are burning! I gotta take you to the nurse's office."

Kagome was shaking and was gently pulled out of the classroom, followed by concerned eyes.

She knew now. The mountain Sesshomaru had destroyed was Mount Hokuzan. She had seen the golden pavilion from afar, crumbling under his colossal claws, but she had been too busy crying to pay attention.

That meant…

"Kagome-chan!" Ayumi's voice was left behind. She ran, she ran with all she had, a cold sharpness in her throat, a knot in her stomach, tears in her eyes.

If she was right and Sesshomaru had destroyed that mountain, why was it there now in her time? The temple could be rebuilt, but the entire hill?

She almost fell when she quickly put on her shoes and sprinted out of the school, dodging pedestrians and cars.

Nothing mattered; there was no one around her.

She felt she would throw up and fell to all four, wheezing. Just a few more blocks, she could see the hill where her house was.

A new wave of strength came from her willpower alone. She ran again, her knees protesting, her ankles swollen, her mind whirling.

If she was right… if she was right…

She felt airheaded when she finally made it to the titanic God Tree, even larger now than in the days of Naraku. She collapsed against it, her legs were lifeless.

With dull nails she started tearing the bark apart, furiously, madly. With feral intensity a piece of wood at the time she managed to cover her hands in splinters and the small portion of the trunk that had been cleared in blood.

Her hands trembled but she couldn't feel the pain. "I need…"

She managed to stand up once again and run to her house. Her family was gone, thank goodness or they had stopped such insane behavior.

Tripping upstairs she launched herself at Tessaiga, which pulsated softly in a welcoming rumble.

She gathered the sword and hurried downstairs, falling and stumbling, with bloody knees.

The hilt was left behind mid-way. With all she had she darted forward and stabbed the bark with the sword, giving furious thrusts over and over again.

It could be… Her presence in the past had created a new line… a world where Naraku never had even a shard of the Jewel.

 _Please, please be there…_

A world where Sango's family never died.

 _You have to… you hear me? You HAVE to!_

Where Miroku's quest was far easier.

 _Please, Inuyasha…_

Where Shippo still had his father.

"INUYASHA! WAKE UP!"

Where Kikyou was never thorn from the land of the dead.

"PLEASE, PLEASE WAKE UP! I'M HERE! I'M HERE FOR YOU!"

Where she never existed.

Breathless, she fell against the Goshinboku, the Iron Fang driven into the wood with as much as her little strength had managed. She cried and rested her forehead against the bark, collapsing to the ground with Tessaiga in her weak bloody grasp.

"God Tree, please… if you are listening… if you have him… give him to me…"

Tears fell between dark roots.

"…I need him…"

And just like that her prayers were heard.

With flowing movements the bark opened the way to the core of the tree, where a hanyou laid asleep, sealed for five hundred years.

Roots and brown twists of wood allowed her to climb to him… a long way up since the last time.

But he was there, and his ears twitched. A heartbeat after other, and she could hear it.

A golden eye slowly opened and soon narrowed. "K-Kikyou?"

She didn't dare to touch him.

A snarl showed white fangs. "What the hell do you want? Are you here 'cause you need my help? Let me tell ya I won't let you live if you're planning to use me!"

The sword in the miko's grasp fell to the floor with a metallic resonance.

"It's you…"

"Wha… Why are you looking at me like that? You went insane?" his eyes narrowed and his gaze drifted away. The most imperceptible of blushes darkened his cheeks. "What the fuck do you want?"

She was paralyzed. It was just like the first time, but she was the different one. Her bloody fingertips ghosted over his face, but she still couldn't touch him. "It really _is_ you…"

He sniffed and his ears pricked forward. "Wait! You ain't Kikyou! But I…"

Tears fell endlessly from her eyes and she managed not to fall when she turned the enchanted arrow into nothingness.

And just like that the Goshinboku returned to its slumber, bark and wood closing like a wound heals. And a hanyou and a human girl were between its roots, staring at each other in silence.

" _I_ _know you_ …"

His voice. It was like waking up from a nightmare, like living again, a fresh start, a breath of fresh air.

She couldn't take it anymore and she fell against his chest, hugging him tightly against her body with the little strength she had.

And for some reason he permitted it.

"Nice to meet you, Inuyasha…" murmured the teenager in the arms of a dumbstruck half-breed. "My name's Kagome. Ka. Go. Me."

 **Chapter One: "The Boy who overcame time… And the Girl who was just overcome."**

* * *

 **A/N:** See what I did there?

Ehem, just saying... This is a one-shot... The name's just Chapter One because it's a new beginning, there won't be a chapter 2 of any sorts XD I hope you can appreciate that ^^U

This was written on October the 21st, 2015, the day Mary McFly makes it to the future in BTF2. To honor such a significant date for us movie-lovers, I wrote a one-shot about parallel timelines.

Hey, this is my first Inuyasha one-shot! :D Review plz (L)


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